Who Is Billy McFarland? Fyre Festival Founder Arrested On Wire Fraud Charges

The 26-year-old entrepreneur and co-founder of Fyre Media, Billy McFarland, who organized the Fyre Festival in the Bahamas in April, was arrested Friday in Manhattan by the F.B.I. on charges of wire fraud, according to the Department of Justice.

McFarland reportedly charged over $4000 for tickets from visitors to attend the festival that fell far short of providing an ultra-luxurious private island experience with musicians and models from all over the world. The festival was scheduled for the weekends of April 28 and May 5. Concert goers expected a luxury festival, which turned out be disaster when they reached the island. The event was postponed even before it began, according to People magazine.

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Joon H. Kim, the acting attorney for Manhattan, said in a statement: "McFarland promised a ‘life changing’ music festival but in actuality delivered a disaster. McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, McFarland will now have to answer for his crimes," New York Daily News reported.

McFarland has been charged with one count of wire fraud and was charged in connection with a scheme to defraud investors, which also included misinforming financial details about his company, Fyre Media, according to documents from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. According to the authorities, the 26-year-old entrepreneur was taken into custody Friday and will likely be presented before a judge Saturday.

McFarland was "the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fyre Media. In 2016, he started Fyre Media to build a digital app that would allow individuals organizing commercial events, such as concerts, to bid for artist and celebrity bookings at such events," according to the documents from the attorney’s office.

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McFarland came under media attention in Aug. 2013, when he launched a new credit card for millennials. McFarland released a credit card for events called "Magnises" for a yearly fee of $250 through which the users got invited to a wide range of parties and events in their home city. However, by Jan. 2017, Business Insider reported that users of the card wanted their money back as it did not deliver what it promised.

McFarland dropped out of college in May 2011 and founded an online ad platform called Spling, where he still continues to be the CEO.

In 2014 he partnered with Ja Rule, original name Jeffrey Atkins, rapper, song writer from Queens, New York. The Fyre Festival was organized in partnership with Rule. Before the event, McFarland told Vanity Fair magazine in an interview, "We didn’t just want to be a tech company that was a pure enterprise with no consumer awareness. So a festival was a great way to go and do that and beyond people who are attending."

In a Dec. 2016 interview with All Hip Hop, Rule had said: "Me and my brother and my partner-in-crime, Billy McFarland, man, we started this company called Fyre. It’s been going really good, man.”

Stacey Richman, a lawyer for Ja Rule, told New York Times that Rule has not been arrested for the charges along with McFarland. "Mr. Atkins is not under arrest and we don’t perceive him to be a subject of this investigation."

If McFarland is convicted in the case, he could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.